Quilting on the road

Yes, I'll quilt anywhere. This was taken at the Green Mountain Derby Dames vs. New Hampshire Roller Derby game in a couple of weeks ago.

Before you say "but there are NEEDLES involved!" and have a hissy fit about my apparent disregard for track safety, don't fret. I put this down when the bout actually started.  This was a good thing, too, because we almost had an announcer takedown right in front of me. Considering that the NHRD announcer who was almost run over by a GMDD jammer was Pelvis Costello (AKA my beloved husband) I certainly don't want to have anything stabby anywhere near that blue line. If he were in the hospital, how would I have gotten home?

Plus, I don't want to destroy the quilt or anything.

W. Terry Armstrong - volunteer, mascot, really loud dude in the stands

Volunteers, derby widows, and fans take note: you can give me squares too. This one is from Mr. Terry Armstrong, who has been helping out at BDD and NHRD bouts for several seasons now. Those of you who listen to the wild and crazy screams coming from the Cosmo section of our home bouts will know him as "that dude who out-cheered the Pissah section by himself" or "damn, he's loud," or even "please make him stop." The man is vocal, and he uses his megaphone-like voice to express his love for his favorite ray-gun-wielding ladies on skates.

This piece of green and black is a chaos symbol from his Imperium days. Yes, Terry spent many years beating people up with foam swords, and this symbol is all over the leather armor he made by hand. I hope to toss in some Cosmo-friendly stars, and/or embroider his name in silver thread. Until then, here it is joined with its homies in a pieced-together section of the quilt.

Look for him at the Cosmo bench this season. He'll be stepping down from the stands and handing out helmet panties as one of the new bench managers. I suspect we'll still hear him screaming "let's go Cosmos" when the jam is on, though.

You're so considerate, Mr. Man.

What was that, Mr. Man? Did you notice that I was working on that?

Perhaps you could move over and let me continue working on the project I've been working on for the past two years? Hmm? No? You're not moving? Not even a little bit? Oh, you're going to settle in, then. Right, I see that you're doing that cat thing where you tuck in your legs so you more closely resemble a spiral cut ham.

Just in case you haven't noticed, there are about twenty straight pins in that piece of muslin under your butt. Then again, you make your own decisions. Clearly you decided to sit on sharp things. You make your own choices because you are your own man, and I respect that.

Jerk.

BritKnee Breaker

A while back, BritKnee Breaker hooked me up with her old Nutcracker shirt. She wanted to help out with the quilt, but she's allergic to crafting, so I offered to make her a square. She's my team captain, so naturally I'd be a fool to ignore her request. Also, she's one of the coaches of our travel team, the Boston Massacre, and it's wise to make this square to preserve my personal safety on the track. Most of all, she's a very dear friend, and it's fun to make quilt squares dedicated to the people I love like whoa.

It's shown here already joined with its neighbors, so the strips nearby aren't technically part of the square. I mainly stuck with the scrimmage shirt as is, and threw in some running stitches that crisscross her name in the same sharp, stabby way she crisscrosses the track. I free-motion stitched a few of the letters around her name just because I was having trouble pulling myself away from the sewing machine.

I may add some gold touches or ruffles later as a nod to her new Massacre coaching gig. However, for now, she's all Nut.

Still accepting squares, just so you know.

A few people have emailed me to ask if I'm still accepting squares now that I'm piecing things together. The answer is oh hell YES. I have enough squares to put together the ones I have, but I've designed the whole thing so that I can add to it very easily. More contributions = more quilting = more awesome. The math is easy.

Please keep sending in your squares. This project is far from over, and I'd like to keep this going beyond the pieced together sections I currently have. Besides, my poor cat won't know what to do with himself if the coffee table goes back to the way it was.

Who needs a coffee table anyway?

I've been unable to think about nearly anything else but putting this quilt together for the past couple of weeks. This is one of the most wonderful feelings I've felt in a long time. It's like a fancy, appliquéd quilting muse is chilling on my coffee table, giving me a back massage while we watch Project Runway together. I don't want it to stop!

I'm about halfway through putting together the blocks, but that leaves connecting the strips, making the quilt sandwich, and finally quilting the whole thing together. Oh, and of course there's starting all over again with the new squares I've gotten over the past couple of months. Man, I hope people send me squares forever, because I'm having so much fun I might actually die.

I'm sure my husband is very sick of the quilt taking up the living room table. Hopefully I can bang out a few more strips this weekend so he has a place to put his laptop again. However, my cat will be mad, as he loves lying on the scraps. Pleasing the men in my life is just impossible sometimes.

Como Derby Dames (or "oh my god, where did this post go?)

I had a wonderful dream many, many moons ago. I dreamt that I blogged about a beautiful square from the CoMo Derby Dames of Colombia Missouri. I waxed poetic about the awesomeness of this square, and if I do say so myself, it was some of the best writing I've ever done. Then I woke up and realized that this never actually happened. I occasionally hit my head pretty hard at practice, and it's clear that my memory is going.

Since I can't hope to re-create that blog post in all its glory, here's a new one. Cool square, eh? The whole league signed a handkerchief emblazoned with the league logo. I love individual squares, but when a whole league contributes to one, I think it's especially cool. Togetherness, sister (and/or brother) hood, teamwork... how very derby. I'd love to see more whole-league squares like this, so keep 'em coming.

Hazel Smut Crunch

Hazel Smut Crunch of New Hampshire Roller Derby hooked me up with this square just recently. Rather than try to paraphrase her explanation of the deep symbolism, I'll be a bad blogger and shamelessly lift from her blog, Hazel Gets Crunched:

I used an old shoelace to do the main part of my name. I wanted it to look like old-school Palmer-method cursive writing. I like the piece of scrimmage jersey over a black and gray background that reminds me of the website I helped build for the league. I used pink buttons to spell out NHRD, since pink is our league's main color. I wrote my number and the rest of my name in silver fabric paint, which is how I made my first set of scrimmage jerseys. The red sparkly beads in the corner are there because I'm a sucker for anything red and sparkly. They also symbolize red tape--part of my role on the league is paperwork and untangling beaurocratic mumbo-jumbo like IRS filings and applications for permits from the city clerk's office. Overall, I'm pleased with how it came out and can't wait to send it to Dread.

Thanks Hazel, for your excellent square, and for giving me permission to quote your even more excellent "artist's statement" about the piece.